"Life isn't about finding oneself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Room of Strings

Having floor refinished is like moving while you still live in your house. At least we looked at it that way and took the opportunity to go through things. Questions like "Do you still want this?", "Do you think we'll ever use it again?" and "What is that?" came up. There were other statements heard like "Hey that's where that was!", "Get that out of here.", and "Lookie here!"

It also gave us the opportunity to change some things around. With Shadow still with some puppy tendencies, I've found he loves to chew up cardboard, paper and wood. He's generally good 90% of the time, but there are certain things that I don't want to end up in the 10% - like a harp, music or the cones of yarn!

With some thought, we moved all the music and the looms into one of the bedrooms. This particular bedroom we took down all the sheetrock to expose the 12 foot long beadboard that likely was original. It makes a very nice acoustical chamber. I wish you could hear it, but for now see what you think... So now that we are a little more settled, I actually have been able to get into the strings. I've finally started on the companion piece for the wedge weave I made at John C Campbell last March. I had warped this loom for that class, but was too excited about learning to warp a floor loom at the school to use this one. I had created a design as a guide for this, but after the professor gave us the critique in Anderson on our weavings, I thinking I need to redesign it - or at least take a good look at it. I've also started a new adventure in wedge weave. What I particularly enjoy about it is the undulations in the warp. I decided to see if I could weave pick and pick to really bring the undulations out. So essentially I have two weavings going on side by side. I start in the middle for the large red blocks and start on the outside for the narrow ones. The wedges are not all the same height, so I'm not getting exactly the effect that I want, but I also wonder how it will relax after it's off the loom. I'm using silk I had picked up from a distributor locally. The color screamed Christmas, but I'm not really sure it's doing it for me in this piece. Maybe it's the red rather than green for the tree (you do see a tree don't you???). Again I'll wait until it's finished.

In the clean out as we were putting things back together, James decided to give up two wool sweaters he bought while he was in Scotland nearly 25 years ago. I pulled them from the Goodwill heap and started tearing them apart for the yarn. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but he's thrilled I'm finding a use for the sweaters. I don't know if I have ever seen him wear them and down here likely no one would have even wanted them from Goodwill. We'll see what happens. All I know is the blue reminds me of an overcast winter day - it's a calming color.

For your Shadow fix - here he is in the chair on the back porch that he has claimed. I found a throw that has black labs on it and figured it can stay with his chair!

12 comments:

Oh gosh, I don't know where to start. The room looks great. The floors are beautiful but it's hard to compete with such a lovely harp. The red and silk tapestry is quite unique. I really like the way the structure is coming out, not to mention the colors. I'll certainly be checking back to see the progress on that one and what finally takes shape on the larger one. WooHoo! Shadow as always, looks happy and handsome, if not just a wee bit tight on that chair. And he's got his own "pin-up" lab too! Great shot, you're doing a fantastic job with black dog pictures.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. It mice to feel a little more settled and be able to progress forward. Thanks for the encouragement with Shadow. That chair was my grandfather's and was made by his brother-in-law. I'm not sure what they would think of Shadow's claiming it - but for whatever reason he'd rather be tight up in it than laid out elsewhere.

Thank you Charlotte! I've been told between the harp and weaving that I must like strings a lot! I love the greens also. In fact I think I love them enough, i really can't go wrong with what I weave with them!

The room of strings! I like it!! My studio was a "Bailey Free Zone" for a while when he was a pup.

Two tapestries going at once....very cool! I'll be interested to see them take shape. (Yes, I see a tree!! Wait - or is it two lines of trees turned on their sides and mirrored...maybe I'm delirious!)

That is a really good idea with the sweaters. A really good idea. I have two "special" sweaters that are special to me - one from Costa Rica and one from England - but I don't really wear either of them for fit reasons. I wonder about dismantling them for yarn. Might be a good idea.

To me, the expression on Shadow's face says "I wish this chair had cushy arms so that I could sprawl against them and not have to hold my body in this tight curl." But maybe I'm projecting!! He is such a gorgeous dog!! Bailey has a new bad habit of occasionally trying to sit in my chair in the sunroom if Jim's in there without me. I better not show him this picture of Shadow!!

Tommye - how did you know so well that was Shadow's thoughts??? I actually found that without hte flash my camera still gives off a red light and Shadow has been getting irritated with it. I think it's called the AR beam - it's now gone!!!

Sue - the thing about dismantling these sweater is that it's not all one piece of yarn. For a tapestry weaver that's no big deal, but nearly every row of the back of the sweater has been an indiviual piece. Just a word of warning! And Shadow has so many places he can sprawl out, but why in the chair I don't know, but I just let him have it!!!

Tommye - how did you know so well that was Shadow's thoughts??? I actually found that without hte flash my camera still gives off a red light and Shadow has been getting irritated with it. I think it's called the AR beam - it's now gone!!!

Sue - the thing about dismantling these sweater is that it's not all one piece of yarn. For a tapestry weaver that's no big deal, but nearly every row of the back of the sweater has been an indiviual piece. Just a word of warning! And Shadow has so many places he can sprawl out, but why in the chair I don't know, but I just let him have it!!!

Shadow is a trick isn't he, somehow he manages to just fit onto that chair even tho it's really way too tight for him. The things we do for ranking, gaining height that is.And, i can see that you are planning on doing another wedge weave, that's wonderful. I do like the green colour combo. K.